In the front is the Roulade, to the right is the Risotto and to the left is the Confit

All trilogies must come to an end, and finally, I’m able to close the chicken trio chapter, it’s certainly taken a long time to get to it (and I’m sure you’ve all been dying of excitement, right? hehe). This here was the lightest of the three elements and the most “chicken-ey” of the them. You could really taste the humble chicken leg in probably its best light; juicy, soft, tender and packed full of flavour. A buttered up parcel of puff pastry adds the textural component, while the truffle cream ties it all together. Technically this isn’t a confit, because a confit is something that’s cooked in its own fat, but the result is pretty much the same. On another note, the excess oil from the confit can be reserved and used for general cooking afterwards, it is delicious and full of goodness and will fill your lives with happiness many days after this dish has been eaten and enjoyed!

For the confit, I used an Emril Lagasse recipe but with a few tweaks:

4 whole chicken legs and thighs

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

10 medium garlic cloves (peeled and whole)

2 spoons of whole peppercorns

About 1 tbsp of salt

About 1 tsp of freshly ground pepper

About 4 cups of olive oil to cover the chicken in your pot

Preheat oven to 90 Degrees Celsius

The original recipe called for the marination of everything together in a pot overnight, I imagine that the results would be marginally better than cooking everything all together straight away, but probably not worth the hassle. I would think a 4 to 6 hour slow cook would be sufficient to impart enough flavour to the chicken, so here’s what you do:

Place all ingredients in a large pot, but small enough to make sure that the chickens are fully covered with the oil. Liberally add salt and pepper to your chickens before placing in the pot. Cook in the hot oven for about 5 hours, until the meat falls off the bone. Pick pieces of meat as desired, and reserve the rest in a container in the fridge covered with the excess oil.

For the puff pastry parcel, there’s nothing easier, just cut store bought puff pastry sheets into 3x3cm squares, brush with eggwash and place in oven as instructed.

For the truffle mustard cream (this recipe’s featured before on the blog):

Use about 200ml of whipping cream, add about 2tbsp of white truffle oil (to taste) and 1 tsp of Dijon mustard. Fold the oil and mustard into a manually whipped cream.

For the red wine glaze:

1 1/2 chopped shallots

1/2 glass of red wine

2 dashes of worchester sauce

1/2 teaspoon of chopped thyme

1 tbsp of sugar

Salt to taste

olive oil

in a small pan, heat the olive oil on a medium high heat and saute the shallots for a coulple of minutes until soft but not browned. Add the remaining ingredients, whisk well and allow to simmer on a low heat for about 20mins, until the alcohol is cooked away and the glaze thickens. Season with salt and pepper and strain the sauce to remove the bits of shallots and thyme. Keep the liquid warm on a low heat until plating.

To plate:

Place pastry parcel on the plate, placing a few pieces of chicken over it. Spoon the truffle cream over the chicken and then drizzle with the glaze. A guaranteed winner 🙂